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AUDIOPHILE AUDITION is a free international online magazine for audio buffs, record collectors and music lovers, publishing up to 100 disc reviews monthly of classical, jazz, pop, movies, documentaries, and operas on Blu-ray and DVD, vinyl, CDs and hi-res formats.

Marcel Romano arranged for this session when the first four artists were in visiting in Paris in 1958. Barney Wilen was the lead tenor saxist, playing with authorization from his label Disques Vogue. Milt Jackson turned away from his leading role on vibes in the MJQ and played piano on this session. One little problem was that aside from “Nuages,” none of the musicians were familiar with the music to be recorded. Wilen went to Romano’s house to listen to old 78s of Django Reinhardt and Charles Trenet, and transcribed the exact melodies, since this was to be a collection of their pieces.

Romano also wrote the album notes, and speaks of how impressed he was with the speed with which the artists learned the themes and performed them in highly original interpretations. He said their fiery rendition of Django’s “Swing 39” which opens the album, would have delighted Django himself. Gana M’Bow provided the Afro-Cuban percussive sounds on some of the tracks. After they had recorded most of the session, Milt Jackson suggested a blues, and that became “Bag’s Barney Blues” at the end of the first side of this 180-gram audiophile vinyl.

The original master tapes provided the master, and the disc was pressed by Pallas in Germany. While the remastering is excellent, I think this historial mono session would probably sound just about as good on a CD, and the vinyl reissue is very expensive. Thus I’m going to list this in the Jazz section instead of Hi-Res. But you decide.